Method and System for Efficient Loading of Coextruded Meat Products Into a Packaging Machine Using Controlled Conveying and Handling

ABSTRACT

A system and method of transporting and loading coextruded meat products in a packaging machine are disclosed. A single line of the coextruded meat products are conveyed using a linear transfer conveyor to an orienting conveyor onto which they are transferred. The orienting conveyor establishes a group of coextruded meat products which is subsequently transported from the orienting conveyor into a cavity of the packaging machine using a pushing device. It is contemplated one or more of these processing lines may run in parallel and that various steps could involve batch operations, such as, for example, multiple groups being pushed into multiple cavities simultaneously.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/449,674 filed on Jan. 24, 2017, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety for all purposes.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This disclosure relates to methods and systems for loading coextruded sausages into a vacuum packaging machine.

BACKGROUND

In conventional coextruded sausage production, the sausages are typically vacuum packaged before further processing or final packaging. Vacuum packing involves placing the sausages in a plastic film package, removing air, and sealing the package. Among other things, vacuum packing can remove the exposure of the sausages to oxygen to help improve their shelf life and can help to minimize the volume of packaged sausages.

However, the loading of the vacuum packaging machine has always been troublesome. Many producers use manual loading where the sausages are conveyed randomly to the vacuum packaging machine at which location the sausages are individually hand-loaded into the package cavities of the packaging machine. This method is very costly due to the high labor it requires.

While there are automated loading systems that attempt to fully and automatically load the sausages, to date there are none that can do it efficiently without additional labor requirements. For example, these systems often embody complex sausage handling and organizing machinery and/or robotics which makes them very expensive to purchase and hard to operate and maintain. These systems also have the drawback that they are very large and take up valuable production space.

SUMMARY

Disclosed herein are improved methods and systems for loading sausages into a vacuum packaging machine that combines controlled transport of sausages to the packaging machine with organizing them and transferring them into the packaging machine. This method is more labor efficient, simple to operate, and results in a lower cost solution than was heretofore possible.

According to one aspect, a system for transporting and loading coextruded meat products in a packaging machine is provided. The system includes a linear transfer conveyor adapted to convey a single line of the coextruded meat products, an orienting conveyor adapted to receive the single line of the coextruded meat products thereon from the linear transfer conveyor and to establish a group of coextruded meat products thereon, and a pushing device adapted to push the group of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into a respective cavity of the packaging machine.

In some forms, the linear transfer conveyor, the orienting conveyor, and the pushing device establish a process line for transporting and loading coextruded meat products in the packaging machine. It is contemplated that the system may have one or more process lines which may operate in parallel with one another.

In some forms, the orienting conveyor may include a series of parallel slots which are adapted to sequentially receive the coextruded meat products from the linear transfer conveyor. The orienting conveyor may be adapted to simultaneously hold one or multiple groups of coextruded meat products and, if there are multiple groups, then the pushing device may be adapted to simultaneously push the multiple groups of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into respective cavities of the packaging machine.

According to another aspect, a method of transporting and loading coextruded meat products in a packaging machine is provided. A single line of the coextruded meat products is conveyed using a linear transfer conveyor to an orienting conveyor. The single line of the coextruded meat products is transferred from the linear transfer conveyor to the orienting conveyor to establish one or more groups of coextruded meat products on the orienting conveyor. The group or group(s) of coextruded meat products are then transported from the orienting conveyor into a cavity or cavities of the packaging machine using a pushing device.

As noted above, it is contemplated that, according to some forms of the method, there may be more than one process line, and those lines may be operated in parallel with one another. The number of lines could be based on the output of the upstream cooking device (e.g., a thermal wheel) or the capacity of the packaging machine(s) into which the coextruded meat products are loaded.

It should be noted that the step of transferring the single line of the coextruded meat products from the linear transfer conveyor to an orienting conveyor may involve sequentially transferring the coextruded meat products from the linear transfer conveyor to a series of parallel slots in the orienting conveyor. In some forms, a single coextruded meat product is transferred into an aligned slot of the orienting conveyor and the orienting conveyor advanced one slot so that another slot on the orienting conveyor is available to receive the next coextruded meat product from the linear transfer conveyor.

Also as noted above, in some forms, the step of transporting the group of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into a cavity of the packaging machine using a pushing device may involve transporting multiple groups of the coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into respective cavities of the packaging machine using the pushing device.

The system and related method operation offer many advantages over the state of the art. The use of a linear transfer conveyor in combination with the orienting conveyor provides an elegant and robust way to produce groups which can then be easily pushed into the cavities of the packing machine. This system requires very little manual labor, and workers may be able to simply monitor the loaded cavities to ensure process control and correct any small mis-loadings before packaging.

These and still other advantages of the invention will be apparent from the detailed description and drawings. What follows is merely a description of some preferred embodiments of the present invention. To assess the full scope of the invention the claims should be looked to as these preferred embodiments are not intended to be the only embodiments within the scope of the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a system for conveying and loading coextruded meat products from a cooking system (here, a thermal wheel) to a vacuum packaging machine.

FIG. 2 illustrates, in greater detail, a portion of the system from FIG. 1 in which the terminal ends of a pair of single lane conveyors place the coextruded meat products onto respective orienting belts from which respective pusher devices push groups of the coextruded meat products into empty cavities on the packaging machine.

FIG. 3 illustrates a top view of the systems illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference being had to FIGS. 1 through 3, an exemplary system 100 for loading coextruded meat products or sausages (terms which will be used synonymously herein) into a packaging machine is illustrated.

As illustrated, the system 100 includes a pair of linear transfer conveyors 102, a pair of orienting conveyors 104, and a pair of pushing devices 106 which together define a pair of separate process lines which operate in parallel with one another. It will be appreciated that while the exemplary system 100 as illustrated includes a pair of parallel processing lines, that the system could conceivably include any number of these processing lines (from as few as one processing line to multiple processing lines) and the dual processing line configuration that is illustrated is only one example configuration based on the output of the cooking device and throughput of the packaging machine.

As can be best seen in FIG. 1, the system 100 transports the sausages from a cooking device 108, shown as a thermal wheel, to a packaging machine 110 into which the sausages will be received for packaging such as vacuum sealing.

As depicted, the sausages are initially unloaded from the exit of the thermal wheel or cooking device 108 onto two single lane, linear transfer conveyors 102. As the sausages are placed onto the linear transfer conveyors 102, they form a single line of sausages on each conveyor 102 in which the axial ends of the sausages face one another to produce a uniform, single row per conveyor 102. The single lane conveyors 102 then transport the sausages to both sides of the packaging machine to a transfer station 112. As depicted, the conveyors 102 bring the sausages initially in line together out of the thermal wheel 108 and then split in two different directions to reach both lateral sides of the packaging machine 110. The conveyors 102 curve to bring the sausages perpendicular to the orienting conveyors 104 and packaging machine 110.

At the transfer station 112, the sausages are loaded, one at a time, from the linear transfer conveyors 102 onto respective slotted belts which serve as the orienting conveyors 104. The orienting conveyors 104 run perpendicular to the single lane, linear transfer conveyors 102 and parallel to the packaging machine 110. The sausages are deposited on the orienting conveyors 104 by simple linear transfer from their continued forward motion from the linear transfer conveyor 102. As this transfer motion occurs, each sausage will hit a back stop to halt its forward motion and will start moving sideways with the orienting conveyor 104 as the orienting conveyor 104 advances in a direction perpendicular to the transfer motion. By virtue of sausages nesting in or laying in the slots in the belt of the orienting conveyors 104, the continued advancement of the orienting conveyors 104, and the continued loading of the next sausage from the linear transfer conveyor 102 into the next open slot on the orienting conveyor 104, the sausages are formed into groups on the orienting conveyor 104 that are oriented in the right packaging pattern configuration for the packaging machine 110.

As the orienting conveyors 104 collect the oriented groups of sausages thereon, the orienting conveyors 104 transports the groups of sausages in front of the packaging web of the packaging machine 110. The packaging machine 110 indexes or moves forward periodically (typically 6 to 18 times per minute) and advances several pockets or cavities 114 to be loaded (advancing being in the leftward direction from the top view of FIG. 3). The orienting conveyor 104 matches the speed of travel of the cavities of the packaging machine 110 and they advance or travel parallel with one another. At each index, new web cavities 114 are opened up as the filled ones move forward and the orienting conveyor 104 keeps pace with the indexing speed. At each advance of the web of the packaging machine 110 (or after a sufficient amount of advances), a pre-oriented group or groups of sausages are pushed from the orienting conveyor 104 by a mechanical pushing device 106 onto the web from each side into the awaiting packaging cavities 114. In the particular embodiment illustrated with dual process lines, this pushing happens simultaneously from both sides of the packaging machine and thus filling all empty cavities. The pushing device 106 then lifts and returns to its original position and awaits the next index. Meanwhile the orienting conveyor 104 keeps a constant speed.

As the filled cavities 114 advance, the operators merely make sure that the sausages are properly seated into the package cavities 114.

Thus, a robust, reliable, and efficient system and related method of operation are disclosed which can take cooked coextruded meat products or sausages from the last cooking device to the packaging station and controllably and reliably load the coextruded meat products or sausages into the cavities of the packaging machine. This system and method involves only minimal human labor (primarily monitoring) and is far more efficient than manual loading.

It should be appreciated that various other modifications and variations to the preferred embodiments can be made within the spirit and scope of the invention. Therefore, the invention should not be limited to the described embodiments. To ascertain the full scope of the invention, the following claims should be referenced. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for transporting and loading coextruded meat products in a packaging machine, the system comprising: a linear transfer conveyor adapted to convey a single line of the coextruded meat products; an orienting conveyor adapted to receive the single line of the coextruded meat products thereon from the linear transfer conveyor and to establish a group of coextruded meat products thereon; a pushing device adapted to push the group of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into a respective cavity of the packaging machine.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the linear transfer conveyor, the orienting conveyor, and the pushing device establish a process line for transporting and loading coextruded meat products in the packaging machine.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein the system includes a plurality of the processing lines.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the orienting conveyor includes a series of parallel slots which are adapted to sequentially receive the coextruded meat products from the linear transfer conveyor.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the orienting conveyor is adapted to simultaneously hold multiple groups of coextruded meat products.
 6. The system of claim 5, wherein the pushing device is adapted to simultaneously push the multiple groups of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into respective cavities of the packaging machine.
 7. A method of transporting and loading coextruded meat products in a packaging machine, the method comprising: conveying a single line of the coextruded meat products using a linear transfer conveyor; transferring the single line of the coextruded meat products from the a linear transfer conveyor to an orienting conveyor to establish a group of coextruded meat products on the orienting conveyor; and transporting the group of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into a cavity of the packaging machine using a pushing device.
 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the linear transfer conveyor, the orienting conveyor, and the pushing device establish a process line for transporting and loading coextruded meat products in the packaging machine and wherein the system includes a plurality of the processing lines that operate in parallel with one another.
 9. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of transferring the single line of the coextruded meat products from the linear transfer conveyor to an orienting conveyor involves sequentially transferring the coextruded meat products from the linear transfer conveyor to a series of parallel slots in the orienting conveyor.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of transporting the group of coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into a cavity of the packaging machine using a pushing device includes transporting multiple groups of the coextruded meat products from the orienting conveyor into respective cavities of the packaging machine using the pushing device. 